Heretofore, the handling of a plurality of open end receptacles, such as test tubes, in which specimens and samples thereof have been collected for subsequent analysis, has normally required a substantial amount of time and manual effort. In addition, such a procedure required the exercise of extreme care on the part of the person handling the receptacles so as to maintain segregation thereof and/or prevent contamination of the collected specimens or samples. Similarly, replication requires the various receptacles to be uniformly handled. Because of problems such as these, apparatus such as disclosed in pending United States application Ser. No. 312,894, filed Dec. 7, 1972, and now abandoned have been utilized to accurately and quickly prepare the necessary samples of a specimen so that numerous tests can be accurately performed thereon.
Various automatic tube-handling assemblies have heretofore been provided for simultaneously handling such tubes; however, because of certain design characteristics, such assemblies have been beset with one or more of the following shortcomings: (a) the assembly was unable to accommodate receptacles of various sizes; (b) the accommodated receptacles were susceptible to damage or breakage; (c) the receptacles when accommodated within the assembly, were not readily capable of being orbitally moved to produce vertical motion to the fluids within the receptacles; (d) the accommodated receptacles were not automatically detected, leveled and orbitally moved by the apparatus of the type disclosed in the aforementioned pending application; (e) the apparatus was costly, bulky, awkward to use and of fragile construction, and (f) the apparatus was unable to handle several receptacles in a uniform manner.